On September 7, Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus, reported the data theft of names, Social Security Numbers, birthdates, addresses, and in some cases driver’s license and credit card information for as many as 143 million people.
But as a Mac and iOS user, why is this relevant to you? Because anyone who has purchased this illegal data will try to use it through compromising your digital and online accounts. Most of these accounts you access through your Mac or iOS device.
What can you do if your Equifax data was stolen?
To see if you may be affected, visit Equifax’s website on the breach at https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. Do NOT sign up for their “free” credit monitoring service.
Sign up for Credit Karma’s free credit monitoring
Go to CreditKarma.com to sign up for a free account and you’ll get access to free credit monitoring. If they notice any suspicious activity, you’ll get an alert. Plus, Credit Karma also gives you free access to your credit scores and reports, as well as tips on what factors are impacting your credit.
If you have AAA auto insurance and you live in Colorado or other included states, they offer a free Identity Theft Monitoring solution backed by Experian called ProtectMyID Essential at no extra charge. Click here to enroll.
Freeze your credit with all three main credit bureaus
By freezing your credit files, you can prevent criminals from using your information to wreak havoc on your financial life. Clark.com offers a one-stop solution for freezing your credit on all three major credit services here.
You can also join a Facebook Equifax Help Group with lots of recommendations about what to do here.
The other major thing you can do is to make sure that all your accounts do NOT share passwords. Each account needs a unique password to log in. You can read more about that in the previous post about risky password practices.
Clark.com has an excellent 4-minute video with an explainer and recap of the above recommendations: